Reeling in a Good Time: 2025 Mill River Brewing Ice Fishing Derby

On Saturday, March 1st, Friends of Northern Lake Champlain had an amazing day on the ice with our friends at Mill River Brewing! The annual Clean Water Ice Fishing Derby was a huge success this year, with over 100 participants and volunteers.

Mill River Brewing worked hard the days before and morning of to provide a delicious lunch of pulled pork, mac and cheese, and chili, and of course, hosting this fun event! You can find them on Instagram, Facebook, or here at their website. Their friends Sean and Julie helped by running the weigh station and recording winners.

Mill River Brewing and Smokehouse

Our friends at Martin's General Store in Highgate were also an instrumental part of this event. They worked hard to plow a road on the ice, provide shanties, and host our trophy and prize station in their store! You can find them on Facebook using the button below.

Martin's General Store

Six AmeriCorps members joined in the fun as well! FNLC Board Chair Kent Henderson took the group on a tour around the lake to show us landmarks, tell us about the area, and allow us to meet some of the participants. This was such a special experience that we will all look back on for many years.

We would like to send a huge thank you to Mill River Brewing, Martin's General Store, our sponsors, volunteers, and participants for showing up to this event and making this day incredible! We could not have pulled it off without any of you and we look forward to seeing you at our next event. See our gallery below for more pictures and be sure to click or tap on them to make them larger.